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UNITED S'IAEES PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER H. BROWN, OF IVASJIINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

BRICK-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concer/n.:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER H. BROWN, of Tashington city, and District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Compressing Dry Clay into Bricks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and eX- act description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and letters of reference marked thereon.

Figure l is a side elevation. Fig. 2 is an end elevation. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, through the skeleton wheel and lower plunger from d to e Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a side view showing ratchet and stock together with the discharging apparatus. Fig. 5 is a side view of quadrant and lever. Fig. G is a vert-ical view of quadrant and lever.

A is a bed plate of cast iron.

B, B, Figs. l and 2, are two-cast iron sides.

C, Figs. l and 2, is a cast iron vertical wheel with eight equidistant openings forming a skeleton for the purposeof receiving any variety of size or shaped molds, and plungers to be inserted through its periphery.

D, Fig. 2, are eight cast chill molds secured by keys letinto both the molds, and skeleton wheels in order to make them perfectly secure in their places. These molds are without bottom and receive the inside plungers.

E, Figs. l and 3, are eight inside plungers acted upon by the small cams, F F Fig. 3 through the forked compression bars Gr, Gr, and inserted into the skeleton wheel, and placed immediately opposite the lower plunger, and molds, in such manner that the head of the plunger, serves to form the bottom of the molds, as well as to act as a compression plunger.

F F, Fig. 3, are two short cams placed :Lpon the shaft, of the lower tooth wheel U G, G, Fig. 3, are two compression bars, upon one end of each is a rectangular hook, to take hold of the cross bars Q Fig. l and at the opposite end of said compression bars, are forks in the cast iron cross head secured by strong screws and nuts in which the two short cams F F revolve and cause the inside plunger to approach the surface of the molds.

I-I I-I, Fig. 3, are two cross heads upon the forks of the compression bars G G which 13,747, dated November 6, 1855.

pass through guides upon the caps of the lower cam R, Fig. 3.

J, Fig. 3, is a strong wrought iron co-nnecting rod, attached to the outside of the upper-tooth wheel U, Fig. 1, by a pin upon which it revolves, and extending to the up` per horn of the ratchet, stock K Figs. l and 2 and secured by a reverberating pin between the jaws of the stock.

K, K, Figs. 2 and 4, is the ratchet stock formed of two corresponding wrought iron bars, embracing the ratchet upon the shaft of the skeleton wheel, C Fig. 4, between those is secured the pawl hand, which acts upon the ratchet at each half revolution of the upper tooth wheel M.

L, Figs. 2 and 4, is another connecting rod extending from the lower horn of the ratchet stock, K, in a vertical direction to the lever M, Figs. 2 and 4, placed upon the outer end of the rock shaft N, Fig. 2; M, Figs. 2 and 4, lever attached toconnecting bar L and operated by it.

N, Figs. l and 2, is the rock shaft upon which are placed two short levers inside t-he frame.

O, O, Fig. 2, are two short levers upon the rocker shaft, N, for the purpose of causing the vertical hooked bars to rise o-r fall when discharging the bricks.

P, P, Figs. 2 and 4, are two vertical bars attached to the short levers, O, O, by a pin passing through a horizontal slot in their lower ends to allow for the 'vibration of the levers O, O. The upper ends of said bars, form a rectangular hook to act uponthe cross bars 2, Figs. 1 and 2.

Q, Figs. 1 and 2, are eight cross bars of wrought iron passing through the Shanks of the plunger, and the openings of the skeleton wheel and forming lugs to be taken hold of by the hooks upon the compression bars, G, G, and the vertical bars, P, I), alternately.

R, R, Figs. 2 and 3, are the twolong cams, upon the shaft of the tooth wheel, U, U, and act immediately upon the upper and lower outside plungers.

S, S, Figs. 1 and 3, are two outside plungers with thin guides extending to the guide rods, around which are placed one spiral spring to each guide rod, in order to act upon the plungers and withdraw them from the molds as soon as the point of. the cam has passed the top of the plunger.

T, Fig. l, is a fork attached to the lower end of the lowerplunger S which acts as a regulator of the skeleton where by taking hold of a pin, inserted into the ends of the molds so as to insure the plunger entering the molds at all times.

U U, Figs. l and 2, are two larger tooth wheels, placed upon the cam shafts for the purpose of actuating the plungers.

V, Fig. 2, is a pulley upon the shaft of the skeleton wheel, and acts upon a small pulley upon the carrier shaft, through a belt extending from one to the other.

W, Figs. l and 2, is a pulley placed immediately under the skeleton wheel, over which a broad band passes and extends to any desirable distance for the purpose of oifbearing the bricks.

X, Fig. 1, is a hopper placed upon the upper periphery of the skeleton wheel for the purpose of receiving the pulverizedv clay.

Y, Fig. 2, is a driving pulley for t-he purpo'se of putt-ing the machine in motion.

Z, Fig. 2, is a small pinion upon the driving shaft and gearing into the two tooth wheels U U.

A, Figs. 5 and 6, are two quadrants, one on each side of the skeleton wheel and attached to the levers for the purpose of regulating the amounts of clay for making the brick, by causing the legs Q to rise and fall as the surface of the quadrants are raised or depressed through the agency oit the crank shaft 5 and levers 0,' b, Fig. l, crank shaft connected with the lever, upon the quadrant by a long link passing from one to the other.

c, Fig. l, is a lever for regulating the feed through the quadrants, and is held in position by a pin fitting into the holes drilled into the side of the frame.

In order that, this machine in its action may be fully understood, I will give the following description of its operation, viz: The prepared clay passes into the hopper upon the top of the machine, from the pulverizer, which is placed above the machine. As the molds in the face of the wheel pass under the bottomless hopper, they receive the necessary quantity of clay to produce a brick, and when the mold arises opposite the top plunger the clay receives a sufficient amount of compression from the plunger to expel a portion of the air and consolidate theclay sufficiently to carry it to the second plunger, when the said plunger and the corresponding inside plunger approach each other through the action of the reversed cams upon the lower compression shaft, making the bricks uniform in size and weight. After the bricks have thus receivedx three compressions, (by the rotary motion of the wheel,) the molds take a vertical position with the skeleton wheel shaft, and while the plunging is going on to compress the succeeding brick, and while the mold wheel is perfectly at rest, the brick is expelled from the mold, through the action of the vertical bars P P, which t-ake hold of the cross bars of the inside plungers and force said plungers half an inch beyond the surface of the mold, and thus prevent the corner of the brick from becoming injured, as the bricks are deposited, perfectly flat, upon t-he carrying belt, and carried to the kiln door, thus requiring but two hands to shovel the clay into the pulverizer, when this machine, with but a single `row of molds will compress from eighteen to twenty thousand brick per day and deliver them at the kiln.

vWhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent ish 1. The combination of two outside plungers with the skeleton wheel, inside plunger, and molds, when arranged and operated as set forth in the foregoing specifications and not otherwise.

2. I claim discharging the bricks by means of the ratchet stock K, vertical bars P P, and inside plungers E, when arranged and operated as described and not otherwise.

3. I claim the mode of regulating the amount of feed through the action of t-he quadrants upon the inside plungers when arranged as described.

4;. I also claim regulating the movement of the skeleton wheel (C Fig. l) by means of the fork (T Fig. l) upon the lower plunger when arranged as described.

A. H. BROWN.

Witnesses:

GEO. D. ABBo'r, W. A. EVANS. 

